Farnboro John
Well-known member
Again my recollection is shaky but I think we left for an evening into night drive with a late dinner to be ready on our return. This second drive started in daylight and added to our experience yard-long Blue-and-Yellow Macaws, Speckled Chachalacas (Nicolas said they were Chaco but Hugo later said not at Jaguarland they aren’t, they are Speckled) and a couple of familiar migrant shorebirds from North America (and for that matter vagrants to Britain): Solitary Sandpiper and Greater Yellowlegs.
One particular bit of wetland seemed a magnet for Rufescent Tiger-Herons: not just today but every time we passed, multiple adults and juveniles launched themselves from the pools below our embanked roadway. Southern Screamers were another new shape to me as an embryonic South American birder: large and boldly patterned, often found as closely associating pairs. Another species we frequently saw as couples was Whistling Heron: by contrast the Black-collared Hawks sitting up over the channels were invariably on solo patrols, as were individuals of the next species to drop onto the list, the mighty Ringed Kingfisher.
Least Bitterns also leapt up from the river channels as we passed and the odd Striated Heron glanced up but returned to fishing. Why do these two behave differently?
As the light failed we switched from bins to spotlights and thermal imagers. A couple of hours roaming the tracks through reserve’s wetlands, woods and fields produced quirte a lot of Crab-eating Foxes including one that posed for pictures, a distant Marsh Deer and numerous male Scissor-tailed Nightjars, easily identifiable by their long split tails: for tonight we didn’t bother with trying to sort out what was evidently more than one species present.
Back at camp we encountered a massive toad that sat unconcernedly as cameras flashed around it (incidentally the order of photos on my camera confirms we had an evening drive and a short night drive with the toad between the two). We began to get into the habit of going through and closing doors after dark quickly so the insects attracted by lights wouldn’t get in. We were warned to always use torches moving around at night in case of snakes, scorpions and any other nasties that might be about (photos of e.g. Coral Snake in the camp area reinforced this, quite unnecessarily in my case at least!) Dinner was washed down with a couple of small cans of Bolivian beer – drinkable but when we agreed a couple of beers a night was OK we hadn’t realized they would be 330 ml cans or even smaller! We scooted through the log and turned in to be ready for an early start in the morning.
John
Blue-and-yellow Macaw X 2
Bolivian Red Howler Monkey
Jaguar tracks
Toad sp
Crab-eating Fox X 2
One particular bit of wetland seemed a magnet for Rufescent Tiger-Herons: not just today but every time we passed, multiple adults and juveniles launched themselves from the pools below our embanked roadway. Southern Screamers were another new shape to me as an embryonic South American birder: large and boldly patterned, often found as closely associating pairs. Another species we frequently saw as couples was Whistling Heron: by contrast the Black-collared Hawks sitting up over the channels were invariably on solo patrols, as were individuals of the next species to drop onto the list, the mighty Ringed Kingfisher.
Least Bitterns also leapt up from the river channels as we passed and the odd Striated Heron glanced up but returned to fishing. Why do these two behave differently?
As the light failed we switched from bins to spotlights and thermal imagers. A couple of hours roaming the tracks through reserve’s wetlands, woods and fields produced quirte a lot of Crab-eating Foxes including one that posed for pictures, a distant Marsh Deer and numerous male Scissor-tailed Nightjars, easily identifiable by their long split tails: for tonight we didn’t bother with trying to sort out what was evidently more than one species present.
Back at camp we encountered a massive toad that sat unconcernedly as cameras flashed around it (incidentally the order of photos on my camera confirms we had an evening drive and a short night drive with the toad between the two). We began to get into the habit of going through and closing doors after dark quickly so the insects attracted by lights wouldn’t get in. We were warned to always use torches moving around at night in case of snakes, scorpions and any other nasties that might be about (photos of e.g. Coral Snake in the camp area reinforced this, quite unnecessarily in my case at least!) Dinner was washed down with a couple of small cans of Bolivian beer – drinkable but when we agreed a couple of beers a night was OK we hadn’t realized they would be 330 ml cans or even smaller! We scooted through the log and turned in to be ready for an early start in the morning.
John
Blue-and-yellow Macaw X 2
Bolivian Red Howler Monkey
Jaguar tracks
Toad sp
Crab-eating Fox X 2
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